{"id":2515906,"date":"2026-07-24T18:01:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T18:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2515906"},"modified":"2026-07-24T18:01:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T18:01:35","slug":"oprah-winfrey-cops-to-one-of-her-cringiest-career-mistakes-nearly-three-decades-later-it-was-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/oprah-winfrey-cops-to-one-of-her-cringiest-career-mistakes-nearly-three-decades-later-it-was-bad\/","title":{"rendered":"Oprah Winfrey cops to one of her cringiest career \u2018mistakes\u2019 nearly three decades later: \u2018It was bad\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Oprah Winfrey\u2019s short stint as a singer still haunts her to this day.<\/p>\n

The former \u201cOprah Winfrey Show\u201d host was reminded of her short-lived, self-recorded theme song, \u201cRun On,\u201d while on the \u201cBaby, This Is Keke Palmer\u201d podcast<\/a> Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cGirl, please,\u201d Winfrey responded, as Palmer started singing the tune. \u201cOK. That is one of the mistakes of my career.<\/p>\n

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Oprah Winfrey revealed that her 1998 song, \u201cRun On,\u201d was a huge mistake in her career. kekepalmerpodcast\/Instagram<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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The former \u201cOprah Winfrey Show\u201d host cringed as Keke Palmer (pictured here) began singing the short-lived theme song. kekepalmerpodcast\/Instagram<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cWhat had happened was, I was trying to decide, \u2018Am I going to end the show or not end the show?\u2019 And then I had a little talk with Jesus, and Jesus said, \u2018You gotta keep going.\u2019 And so I said, \u2018You know, there\u2019s this song. It\u2019s an old spiritual.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then we realized, I can\u2019t sing,\u201d she quipped, \u201ceven though I took the singing lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Emmy winner confessed that even adding a church choir for backup vocals couldn\u2019t hide the fact that her rendition of the traditional spiritual song wasn\u2019t good.<\/p>\n

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\u201cGirl, please,\u201d Winfrey responded, \u201cOK. That is one of the mistakes of my career.\u201d (Pictured: Winfrey in the \u201cRun On\u201d music video.) Oprah<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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She recalled recording the spiritual song because she had turned to Jesus for guidance on her longtime talk show. Oprah<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cIt was bad. You know it was bad,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n

The daytime TV star sang her own theme song briefly in the late \u201890s, and her show aired nationally between 1986 and 2011.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time someone has brought up Winfrey\u2019s short-lived singing career.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAnd then we realized, I can\u2019t sing,\u201d Winfrey (seen above hosting the talk show in 1998) quipped, \u201ceven though I took the singing lessons.\u201d \u00a9Harpo Productions\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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\u201cIt was bad. You know it was bad,\u201d the Emmy winner (pictured in 1994) concluded. \u00a9Harpo Productions\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Late singer Whitney Houston playfully sang a snippet<\/a> of the gospel-style theme song while appearing on \u201cThe Oprah Winfrey Show\u201d in 1998 and 1999. <\/p>\n

After 25 seasons of her iconic talk show, Winfrey eventually walked away from the series in 2011.<\/p>\n

Although she has continued to build her media empire, she has never returned to music.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n